Nov 24, 2004

Like sands through the hourglass...

I am very excited to be seeing my dad for Christmas. He lives in Georgia, in the town where I was born, so I don't see him too often. When my parents first divorced and he moved back there, I used to go twice a year: a week for Christmas and also for a long time in the summer, a whole month sometimes. But as I got older that became kind of hard to manage, being away for so long and missing my friends and not having a whole lot to do down there during the day when he was at work. (Really, what can a 9-year-old do in an empty house all day? I watched MTV, mostly. Am excellent at music trivia now.)

And then during high school I always had part-time jobs, and I wanted to be going out with my friends at night, so at some pint I stopped going to see him during the summer altogether, and now I just see him for a week in December. I am here near my mom and stepdad during Chanukah (we are Jewish) and with my dad and stepmom and her kids and their families for Christmas (they are all Christian). It is a pretty amazing time for a Jewish Yankee girl like me. My stepmother is pretty traditional and southern, although not really religious, so she goes all out with the decorations and the tree and the ornaments, many of which are about twenty years old and represent different events in their family's history.

And she cooks and cooks, and there is always a pot of water filled with oranges and cloves sitting on the stove which makes the house smell great. Sometimes they will go to church, like on Christmas Eve I think, which I always skip. My stepbrother is only a year older than me and he stays home too, and we just hang out outside and smoke and talk. He is a really nice guy. When my dad and his mom first started dating, and in the early part of their marriage, he and I were like 11 and 12, and we were both still in that immature, "boys/girls suck!" phase, so we fought a lot, which I secretly loved.

Growing up I was an only child, and then when my parents split up and my mom started working full-time I was a latchkey child, and I grew to be really sick and tired of always hanging out alone, and living in such a quiet house with no chaos. My dad's and stepmom's house was certainly chaotic. When I was there, I went from being this perfect only child to the baby of the family, and I totally acted out and made lots of messes and blamed everything on my stepbrother, and it was so much fun. I loved not being an only child! And I think my stepbrother actually liked having a little sister to annoy and be annoyed by.

It was especially fun when they'd leave us alone in the house (don't worry; there was no Flowers in the Attic situation going on! No forbidden love!). I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of the Calvin and Hobbes comics. I actually own, like, three of the books. One of my favorite things in that strip is when Calvin comes home from school, and he puts his hand on the doorknob and opens the door just a little, and Hobbes comes FLYING out of nowhere and tackles him and they roll down the porch steps, and then Hobbes sits on Calvin's chest and tells him how happy Hobbes is to see him.

So, my stepbrother and I would do something similar. I would just be walking through the house and he would LAUNCH out from behind a bedroom door and tackle me. And then we would wrestle. I love wrestling, I don't know why. Not watching it but doing it. I just think it is really fun. So anyway, we used to wrestle. We can't do that anymore: with our age difference it's a little, um, inappropriate, and also now he weighs like 100 pounds more than me and I would like to remain intact. But there are the memories!

Wow, I guess I had a lot to say. Sorry for the rambling. I must just be in a contemplative mood due to the holidays and the fact that I have nothing to do at work today except type type type. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving, you guys! Thanks for listening to the Days of My Childhood.

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